Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Oblivion’ Obliterates the Competition

Tom Cruise and science fiction are a powerful combination. Although the opening weekend of ‘Oblivion‘ didn’t break any records big or small, it’s a more than solid start for a non-franchise, non-sequel, non-reboot. That’s a sad statement on the current state of Hollywood, but that’s another topic for another day.

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Oblivion

$38,152,000

$10.085

$38,152,000

2

42

$18,025,000 (-34.4)

$5,546

$54,057,000

3

The Croods

$9,500,000 (-27.6)

$2,766

$154,898,000

4

Scary Movie 5

$6,296,000 (-55.5)

$1,851

$22,944,000

5

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

$5,775,000 (-47.0)

$1,819

$111,211,000

6

The Place Beyond the Pines

$4,746,000 (+22.8)

$3,078

$11,448,000

7

Olympus Has Fallen

$4,500,000 (-37.9)

$1,706

$88,801,000

8

Evil Dead

$4,100,000 (-56.8)

$1,452

$48,445,000

9

Jurassic Park

$4,008,000 (-54.8)

$1,720

$38,479,000

10

Oz the Great and Powerful

$3,048,000 (-37.3)

$1,490

$223,770,000

When it comes to Tom Cruise sci-fi movies, ‘Oblivion’s $38 million opening edges out ‘Minority Report’ ($35 million) but is still dwarfed by ‘War of the Worlds’ ($64 million, which, to be fair, also had Steven Spielberg in its corner). Still, it’s Cruise’s biggest opening in quite some time and certainly a step up from ‘Jack Reacher’s disappointing domestic run last year. At the end of the day, ‘Oblivion’ cost a lot of money and this weekend was a really good start. We’ll see how the next few weeks treat it.

The weekend was also very kind to ‘42,’ which took a small drop from last week for a weekend gross of $18 million and a $54 million total. With a reported budget of only $40 million, this means that ’42′ is well on its way to being a significant (if slightly minor) hit. Most blockbusters would kill for this kind of profit.

Meanwhile, ‘The Croods‘ held onto the number three spot for the third weekend in a row, grossing $9.5 million for a $154 million total. Although $200 million is still a long ways off, DreamWorks’ animated caveman movie has proven shockingly resilient over the past month. Unless it’s completely derailed by the arrival of ‘Iron Man 3′ in a few weeks (and everything in the top ten will be derailed when that happens), it may still have a shot. If not, $180 million is probably a sure thing at this point and that’s nothing to cry over.

In fourth place, ‘Scary Movie 5‘ took a big dip, grossing only $6 million for a $22 million total. As we said last week, this will be the last time we see a ‘Scary Movie’ actually in theaters. Does everyone else remember when this series used to be huge?

Right below it, ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation‘ is officially running on fumes, with its weekend take of $5 million bringing its grand total to $111 million. That’s certainly not embarrassing, but it’s nowhere close to the gross of the much-maligned first film. But this one was cheaper, so who knows?

The really interesting film of the weekend lives in spot number six: ‘The Place Beyond the Pines‘ continues to slowly emerge into wider release and it’s the only film this weekend with an increased percentage from last week. It’s unlikely that it’ll emerge as a massive hit when all is said and done, but its slow rolling-out has certainly done it plenty of a favors, casting light on a movie that would have been DOA if released traditionally.

As for the rest…

‘Olympus Has Fallen’ looks like it’ll cross the $100 million mark (but it may be cutting it close. ‘Evil Dead’ has slowed to a crawl, but it’ll bow out with about $60 million and that’s a victory. ‘Jurassic Park 3D’ is also about to leave theaters with a solid but unremarkable run. And finally, ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ will exit the top ten as the highest grossing film of the year so far.

Next week sees the release of ‘Pain and Gain,’ which will most likely grab the top spot…unless its R-rating gets in the way. If so, expect ‘Oblivion’ to cling to number one.

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